England v Australia, 4th ODI, Chester-Le-Street, 7 July, 2012

Another direction under Cook? It will be exactly the same direction- 50-5, two slips, a gully, and a boundary sweeper on both sides of the wicket.

FWIW I don't think we should be overly fearful of who is waiting in the wings. Strauss himself was hardly considered the next Hobbs before he made his test debut. A reasonable first class average and a couple of ODI 50s was all he had to show for himself before he peeled off hundred after hundred in his first 12 months of test cricket.

Root apparently has talent, Carberry is a solid performer, Hales is the wildcard who could be the next big thing. There's openers around.....

You can have Phil Hughes.

As reserve janitor?

Replacement qunt for KP?

Is he enough of a prat to even envisage replacing KP?

Absolutely. Has pasted every attack thrown at him through the years, right up to Test level. And he started like a house in fire in Tests before the Poms (and everyone else - except the stoopid Yarps). Thinks he has a God-given right to arrogantly head-wobble his way into any side.

I was not surprised in the least to see him end up with the Adelaide Hwy as his home pitch. He will probably make 1000 Shield runs this summer, and be tweeting that he deserves a recall because of his talent.

Fair enough, I'd earlier thought of him as a Steve Smith like pointless wank rather than a prick.

Arrogant prick who refused to acknowledge that he had severe technical deficiencies. Then he went 4 times caught Guptill b Martin v Snoozies and had his file stamped NTPFAA.

Didn't he also twitter post in the 2009 Ashes about being dropped before the team list was published?

Getting out four times to the Snoozers was bad enough.

He did. Symptomatic of his boof head to ignore team protocol.

Was at the Hobart Test that will prove to be his last Test. There was a real sense that everyone wanted him to do well, but those technical flaws just made it impossible, espesh on a wicket with a bit of juice. On his second dismissal in the Test and 4th on the trot caught at 2nd slip off Coldplay, you could hear the mutters of "piss him off" around the ground.

Knowing what the head next to you is thinking is fairly common in Tasmania ...

skully wrote:Arrogant prick who refused to acknowledge that he had severe technical deficiencies. Then he went 4 times caught Guptill b Martin v Snoozies and had his file stamped NTPFAA.

Yeah, must admit, he seemed to lack humility when he was interviewed before he got back in the side.... dare I say there was a dollop of hubris within his words that displayed how little he was self-aware. Ended up looking the clown I thought he was.

That technique looks so ingrained and home made that i'm not really sure how he can improve it sufficiently to avoid good bowlers exploiting his weaknesses. He doesn't play the short stuff well, and he doesn't play the full stuff angling across him well either. That makes him pretty f*cked unless bowlers are stupid enough and bad enough to keep feeding his cut shot.

Aye, I'm surprised he ever succeeded - certainly it dissipates any semblance of credibility that horace ever had... the gushing hand-clasping 'ooh The Next Bradman' adulation put pay to that.

Brass Monkey wrote:Aye, I'm surprised he ever succeeded - certainly it dissipates any semblance of credibility that horace ever had... the gushing hand-clasping 'ooh The Next Bradman' adulation put pay to that.

Aye. The Aussie Trev.

The only thing I can think of is that he thought, in some way, that Hughes was Victorian.

Brass Monkey wrote:The only thing I can think of is that he thought, in some way, that Hughes was Victorian.

I suppose every new age looks young to the Romans.

Surely nobody can mistake Phil Hughes for Merv Hughes.

The kid has fast eyes and fast hands and has grown up on honest toilers lobbing him half volleys and bumpers outside off stump. But quick eyes and hands are not enough when you are at the elite level of the game, so if you aren't prepared to adapt then piss off.

Steve Waugh was a classic example of a batsman who recognised that the step up to Test level was huge and put away all the high risk shots and ground out the big knocks.

aye...I thought that his quick eye and hands would see him through and he would do well..I was obviously wrong to boost a NSW player-...lesson learned

btw...BM has a very good memory